Contents

Summary

Official Solicitation

The "COUNTDOWN" is over, the "CHAOS" has just begun! "Damage Control": The shattered world is causing chaos everywhere, and Station Square is about to implode! Sonic and the Freedom Fighters must spring into action to save the day, unless someone beats them to the punch. Cue: Dr. Eggman. Will the evil doctor be the one to save the world? Or will his newfound power give him ultimate control? If the ending to issue 256 left you breathless, you cannot miss the next chapter in the ALL-NEW saga of Sonic's comic adventures! Featuring a special wrap-around cover by Rafa Knight and Variant art from Lamar Wells!

Story One

Damage Control

The story opens with the Freedom Fighters arriving in Station Square. They quickly separate into Team Freedom (Tails, Rotor and Big) to keep the unstable environment under control and Team Fighters (Amy, Bunnie and Antoine) to save every endangered citizen with Sonic as the leader of both factions and Sally as their mentor overseeing their efforts from the Sky Patrol through T-Pup and Omochao's receivers. At the Sky Patrol, Cream timidly claims that she should be there as well, but Sally says that her and Cheese are supposed to stay inside the Sky Patrol should she need assistance with anything. NICOLE appears in her Holo-Lynx form and Sally asks what she learned from the World Networks. Needless to say, things were going from bad to worse.

Meanwhile, Antoine and Bunnie have a serious conversation regarding their newfound split memories while helping Sonic and Amy in rescuing some waterlogged citizens while Team Freedom is able to save an elevator full of misfortunate Twinkle Park clients. Back on the Sky Patrol, Sally suggests that the teams use the sewer access to control the flooding. As she resumes her conversation with NICOLE, she learns that there isn't a single unaffected spot on the planet and that all of them are reporting mass chaos. Sally starts to question if she'll be really able to save everyone, to which Cream replies that she shouldn't take on all the burden alone. Sally claims that it is her responsibility due to her actions on the former reality as Eggman's mindless and soulless robotic slave and she has to make amends. NICOLE then comforts her and says she won't do this at this direst moment, stating that, even if they're confused and distraught over the dual memories, they have to manage this darkest crisis. To do so, they need her to organize and direct them. NICOLE adds that there's nobody else to mentor a single one of them better than her, reminding her that she inspired Dulcy and helped Lupe and that she's the best person to lead them. NICOLE ends the conversation, stating that all of them are on this together and that she's not alone. Sally takes NICOLE's words out of courage and Cream quickly rallies all of the action that she missed from the feed back to her. Sally thanks her and asks NICOLE to see if she can work on confirming the safety of Vanilla, King Acorn and their friends abroad and then start tracking the most endangered areas.

Meanwhile, aboard the Death Egg, Eggman, Orbot and Cubot survey the damage to the planet from the Eggnet satellite data. Eggman claims that all of this is the darkest consequence of the Super Genesis Wave's energy shadow and that the reality damage has been done beyond repair. Angry over having to conquer a broken world, Eggman quickly searches his Eggnet for anything in regards to the planet's odd phenomena that he could potentially use to overcome this crisis. He then finds an article about Professor Pickle's research on the Gaia manuscripts and asks his henchbots if there are any Egg Army units near Spagonia. The bots give him negative, due to them being busy securing their territories following the disaster's outcome and the transmissions jammed in the process. He asks if any Badnik Hordes are near, and Orbot reveals that E-107 Eta's unit is the nearest. Eggman tells them to send Eta and his squad to Spagonia University to grab anything and anyone related to Pickle's research there.

Back in Station Square, Sonic is rescuing several children while running across a skyscraper, and the situation is clearly causing him great distress. As he approaches the end of the building they're on while running too fast to stop, his panic seems to trigger some sort of change in his body, and his face begins to show lycanthropic traits. Luckily, Amy appears and catches him with her Extreme Gear, stopping his transformation, and they realize that they're running in circles to save the endangered citizens. Realizing that they need to find a way to evacuate the people out of the city, Sally asks Rotor if the Sky Patrol can handle it, to which the walrus gives a negative, due to space restraints. As hope seems to be lost, all of these tortuous efforts are paid off by the arrival of the UFAF Letter of Gabriel, headed by Captain Amanda Tower. She deploys GUN units to collaborate on the rescue efforts and welcomes the Sky Patrol, starting a communication link with Sally who thanks them for their assistance, though Amanda insists on thanking them for formidably managing the disaster with such a small squad and claims that they made a real difference. Sally tears up a bit, realizing that everything in Station Square has been under control and then tells Amanda that they're used to dealing with Shadow the Hedgehog's own freedom fighter group instead of GUN directly. Amanda replies that they're off doing their own part in saving the world.

Back to the Sky Patrol, Vanilla and King Acorn are brought up on the communication screen as Cream lets her mom know that she's fine. Vanilla tells her to stay close to the Freedom Fighters and that Gemerl will help her look after Chocola while she's gone. Cream bids her moom goodbye in silent tears and Vanilla leaves the communication to King Acorn. Sally asks her father how Mobotropolis is and he reveals that Westside Island was safely spared the worst. He asks what they've gathered on the rest of the world and NICOLE reveals that, according to the data they've compared with the Eggnet (using the acess codes Sally stole from the Death Egg), the chunks of crust have been stablized for now. Sally then replies that while that's fine, they still have no proper explanation for how can anyone breathe, how the oceans still function, or how the fragments of crust are floating in the first place. Despite this, King Acorn congratulates them on a job well done and tells them to rest up for now. Sonic meets up an exhausted Tails and the fox reveals that with such a crazy day, he almost completely forgot about the whole dual memory issue. Sonic comforts Tails, saying that their memories are safe and sound and that they must focus on what's really happening now.

Sonic then asks NICOLE if he can get Chuck on the way to Spagonia. NICOLE reveals that she was just about to do so and they quickly contact a horribly distraught Ben the Muttski. Sonic asks if the university is still standing or if he's hurt, to which he gives both positive and negative respectively, and then asks if he can get him in touch with Chuck. Sonic then reveals that he's thinking that the quakes that occurred previously were connected to what happened today, and since Chuck was researching on them, it seemed a good idea to check with him on his research. Sally is surprised by Sonic's impressive deductive reasoning, but he blows it off. Muttski then claims that "They took him!" Sonic, curiously, tries to learn who abducted who. Muttski replies that the Badniks have captured Professors Chuck and Pickle and stolen all of their research.

Off Panel

Sonic and Eggman are together in a scene, with Sonic expressing excitement over a new adventure beginning, while Eggman is just glad that the revisiting of old material has ended. Sonic jokingly asks if Eggman "like[s] retro"; the scene then shifts to a black and white scene with cartoonish versions of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy running away from a pajama clad Eggman who yells "I greatly dislike that Needlemouse!!!"

Quotes

Eggman: ...And on top of it all, the final results are in on the Super Genesis Wave's energy-shadow. There's no way to undo the reality shift! What a world I've inherited!

Orbot: Which, if you hadn't interrupted Super Sonic...

Eggman: BRING THAT UP ONE MORE TIME, AND I'LL HOLLOW YOU OUT INTO MATCHING SOUP AND SALAD BOWLS!

Orbot: Like you'd eat a soup or salad...

Eggman:Humph. I have to find a way to fix the world while there's still some of it left to fix. Otherwise, I'll be left with nothing to brutally conquer and lord over!

Amy: My pleasure. I always did want to sweep you off your feet.

Sonic: You're flirting with me here? Now?

Amy: Oh, please. This coming from the master of the inappropriately-timed one-liners.

Sonic: Yeah, but when I do it, it's cool!

Sally: ...We have no explanation as to how anyone can breathe, or how the oceans still functions, or what's keeping the pieces of the world's crust floating.

Sonic: We just saved a city. Can't we just chalk it up to "magic"...and call it a day?

King Acorn (via video screen): A smashing idea, I'd say.

Muttski: Eggman's Badniks! They kidnapped the professors! Pickle and Chuck! They took their research, their samples...they took everything!

Background Information

This is the second issue in the series to feature a wrap-around cover, after Sonic #225.

Oddly, Amy is not present on either cover, despite being a core member of the Freedom Fighters. However, it is worth noting that all of the Sonic the Hedgehog animated series members of the group are featured, which is the most likely reason for Amy's absence as she was not featured in that series.

Silver the Hedgehog's parents (Richard Erin and Deborah Erin) from Evan Stanley's fan comic Ghosts of the Future make a cameo appearance during the scene when Rotor is directing the rescue operations outside of Twinkle Park (albeit slightly recolored). Silver's sister Vennie from the comic also appears as the Mobian girl being rescued by Sonic.

Sissel, Lynne, and Missile from Capcom's Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective! can also be seen during the Twinkle Park evacuation.

Additionally, characters resembling Chuck Thorndyke and Ella from Sonic X, Princess Sara from Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, Honey the Cat, Namco/Bandai's Klonoa, Misty from Pokemon, and internet critic Linkara of Atop the 4th Wall fame (who did a review of "The Last Game Cartridge Hero" from Sonic Live) also make background appearances.

Later on September 15, 2014, there was an episode of AT4W, which had Linkara reviewing Sonic Super Special #7. The episode had a cameo by Evan Stanley, as well as pointing out Linkara's aforementioned cameo.

In one panel, movie posters for "Chao In Space 3" (reference to the fictional "Chao in Space" movie posters that appeared throughout the Sonic Adventure games) and a film called "The Lost World" can be seen. The latter is a reference to the game Sonic Lost World, and the logo is based on that of the Jurassic Park film series.

On Eggman's computer screen, webpages displaying "Eggle" and "Eggwiki" can be seen. These are of course references to Google and Wikipedia respectively.

Additionally, Eggman's words about the Super Genesis Wave's effects being irreversible could be interpreted as one of Archie Comics' first open confessions about the permanency of the reboot five issues earlier.

King Acorn's line "A smashing idea" is a nod to Nigel Thornberry, a character from the Nickelodeon animated series The Wild Thornberrys; famously voiced by British actor Tim Curry, who also provided King Acorn's voice in the Sonic the Hedgehog animated series.

According to Bunnie and Antoine, neither of them where in Station Square when Perfect Chaos attacked in this timeline, in comparison to the old one where they where aiding in the rescue efforts.

While the rest of the Freedom Fighters use brand new Extreme Gear, Amy is shown to use her game counterpart's Pink Rose.

Big is the only game character to use an Extreme Gear in this issue, who does not have one in the games.

In the Off Panel for this issue, Dr. Eggman refers to Sonic as "Needlemouse," one of the early names SEGA used before deciding on the name Sonic. Eggman himself is also seen wearing pajamas, just as he did in early concept art when he was being considered for the role of SEGA's mascot, before it was decided he would be the antagonist of the Sonic series.

The black and white style used in the Off-Panel is an obvious nod to early cartoons, notably those of Walt Disney.